Showtime pulls plug on MMA event after injury

Showtime has pulled the plug on an upcoming MMA card that was to appear on the network.

Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Healy was supposed to take place this Saturday and air live on both Showtime and Showtime Extreme. However, main eventer Gilbert Melendez had to pull out of the show do to injury, which is all-too-common lately in the sport.

Showtime, then, decided not to air the card without Melendez appearing on it. Rather than run the show as just a live event or possibly stream it online, the event was canceled. The effect of this will be a loss of income for fighters scheduled on the card, plus money presumably spent to promote the event.

This is not the first MMA card to be canceled, not even in the past month. Strikeforce’s parent company Zuffa canceled its UFC 151 pay-per-view event that was scheduled for Sept. 1 when headliner Dan Henderson pulled up days before the show, and his opponent light heavyweight champion Jon Jones refused to fight another challenger, Chael Sonnen.

Many MMA fans expected Strikeforce to be killed off once Zuffa purchased it, but a new contract with Showtime was formalized earlier this year. Since the purchase a lot of Strikeforce’s top talent has migrated to the larger UFC organization.